Castle Raisers: Review

Description provided by David Niecikowski, PhD on YouTube:

The three little pigs are no longer so little, and as for the big bad wolf—well—it’s not just one, but an army. A house, even one of brick, has proven unable to repel the legions of wolves on the prowl, and so the pigs have turned to raising castles! Little pigs, little pigs, let us come in! Castle Raisers is a 2 to 4-player (incl. solo and coop modes) tile placement game with drafting elements that is played over twelve rounds. Each player drafts a tile, placing it on earlier one to build a vertical castle. As icons are covered, players activate one of five abilities: placing village tokens inside the castle to strengthen the other abilities, increasing prestige to earn victory points, placing fortification tiles to heighten the walls, dispatching wolves to attack other players’ castles, and pouring cauldrons of soup to repel the invaders. Players aim to prepare for the final wolf attack while simultaneously maximizing their final score by fulfilling the scoring conditions found on the village tokens. Balancing which walls need to be strengthened with which abilities need to be activated are the keys to victory. Raise your castle walls before—we’ll huff and we’ll puff—being razed to the ground! #castleraisers #castleraisersgame #draftinggame #tileplacementgame #stackinggame #towerdefensegame #davidniecikowski #sologame #cooperativegame #WonderfulWorldBoardGames castle raisers board card cooperative solo drafting tile placement stacking game tower defense Wonderful World Board Games julie david niecikowski family light strategy three little pigs competitive mode review